2015-11-19 Cities of Wonder

6 Players: G, J, K, M, Si, W
Game: 7 Wonders: Cities expansion
Location: Si
Choice: Si

Game One:

Player	Points
J	59
W	58
G	58
Si	56
K	50
M	48

Game Two:

Player	Points
K	73
Si	59
M	57
G	55
J	54
W	46

Final Tally:

Player	Points
K	123
Si	115
J	113
G	113
M	105
W	104

Game Notes:

• W & Si were red-shirted ensigns tweedledee and tweedledum
• Much discussion of Malawi (where is it, exactly? for example)
• Every player had their own tiny bag of chips.
• Music programmed by Si and was all vinyl.
• Si offered a prize to the first person to identify the band playing on tonight's first LP.
• G immediately and correctly named Tangerine Dream.
• There was no prize given.

Music Notes:

Tangerine Dream: Ricochet (1975)

First live album by the seminal electro-ambient band, recorded during a 1975 European tour if you can believe that.

Yes: Tormato (1978)

[relayer.com] The album is named after Yes Tor (tor meaning mountain) in Devon, UK The story goes that the band, when first presented with the proposed album cover, didn't like it and someone through a tomato at the artwork. The result went down well and was used, with the album name changing too.

[ultimateclassicrock]Quarrels between Yes members were nothing new, and members came and went on a regular basis, but things seemed particularly stormy during this period. Singer Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman both exited in the following months. Wakeman’s displeasure became particularly evident during an infamous incident when he hurled a tomato at the artwork for the record, which was then titled Yes Tor, after a geological formation in southern England.
“We had paid a fortune for the artwork – which, when we were shown it, we all agreed we had been ripped off,” he later recalled. “It was a pile of brown smelly stuff. I picked up a tomato and threw it at it. … [The title] was hastily changed to Tormato.”

David Bowie: Lodger (1979)

This was terrible.

[AllMusic] On the surface, Lodger is the most accessible of the three Berlin-era records David Bowie made with Brian Eno, simply because there are no instrumentals and there are a handful of concise pop songs. Nevertheless, Lodger is still gnarled and twisted avant pop; what makes it different is how it incorporates such experimental tendencies into genuine songs, something that Low and Heroes purposely avoided. "D.J.," "Look Back in Anger," and "Boys Keep Swinging" have strong melodic hooks that are subverted and strengthened by the layered, dissonant productions, while the remainder of the record is divided between similarly effective avant pop and ambient instrumentals. Lodger has an edgier, more minimalistic bent than its two predecessors, which makes it more accessible for rock fans, as well as giving it a more immediate, emotional impact. It might not stretch the boundaries of rock like Low and Heroes, but it arguably utilizes those ideas in a more effective fashion.

Fleetwood Mac: Greatest Hits (1971)

First compilation released by this band. Later re-released as The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. Before their rise to fame in the cocaine-fueled 1970's, FMac was a dynamite blues band in the electrified Chicago style so popular in the late 1960's.

G correctly identified Elmore James as the originator of Shake Your Moneymaker which is covered very nicely on this album. On the other hand, G was unaware that Black Magic Woman was Peter Green's song and is featured nicely on this album.